The Sorting Of Marauders
by Alqualyne
Summary: finished The Sorting Hat sorts Black, Lupin, Pettigrew, and Potter. It provides Sirius with some ideas for pranks, gives Remus some advice, bestows Peter with a choice, and confers James with an infamous name.


"_Black, Sirius_!"

          Sirius sauntered over to the stool, carefully not showing the apprehension gnawing at his stomach. Grinning on the outside but squirming on the inside, he placed the hat on his head with unusual care.

"Hmm…" a little voice, the Sorting Hat, muttered. "What a devious mind you have. Youngsters nowadays lose their innocence so early."

'Erm…I'm sorry?' Sirius thought uncomfortably. 

"You're brave, oh yes, I see it here. Brave bordering on reckless. Watch those pranks, young Black." 

'Er…I'll try, sir.' He wondered if the Sorting Hat could see the prank he was planning to play on Severus later this evening.

"If you are to survive at Hogwarts, you must learn some caution. Be careful, and plan, Sirius. I know you may not like that Snape boy, but if you're going to get him, _don't_ put a slug in his pumpkin juice. I thought a boy like you would have developed more complex pranks by now." The Hat's tone held a hint of amusement. Sirius, however, was offended.

'Then how should we go about it?' he thought indignantly, forgetting all about the hat's venerability.

"My dear boy," the Hat said. Sirius swore it was grinning. "I see here your friend, James Potter, has an Invisibility Cloak. Surely you plan on using it? As much as you want to be credited with the joke, Sirius Black, I have found that the most fulfilling tricks are when the victim does not know who played the joke on him. It makes the victim even angrier. I recommend a gob of mud, perhaps, lobbed at his face." The Hat went on, ignoring Sirius's amazement. "Well, cheerio, have fun in GRYFFINDOR!"

"_Lupin, Remus_!"

          Remus tried to stop his trembling and put the hat on gently. He might as well try and get on its good side right away, he figured. If the Hat had one.

"Ahh," a small voice said softly. "I see what you are."

'I'm a werewolf,' Remus declared. If the Hat could read minds, he might as well get it out right away.

"You don't want sympathy, I see," the Hat continued. "And you don't want people to know. I assume you would be happy if nobody would ever realize?"

'Yes,' Remus thought fiercely.

"And bear the burden yourself?" the Hat asked gravely. "You are courageous, Lupin. But there are some things you do not know. Your friends will always be there for you, no matter what you believe. It is one marking of your House- they will be loyal to the end."

'I'm in Hufflepuff?' Remus thought, letting the horror clearly show. 'I'd rather not, thank you very much.'

"My dear boy," the voice said, clearly amused. "You are not in Hufflepuff, partly by your dismay, and partly by your bravery. You are _not_ a Hufflepuff by any accounts. There _are_ loyal friends waiting for you in GRYFFINDOR!"

"_Pettigrew, Peter_!"

          The little boy was shaking uncontrollably, and almost collapsed on the stool. He put on the hat quickly, flinching as it came on.

'I know I'll probably be put in Hufflepuff,' he thought resignedly. 'But I _really_ don't want to be in there.'

"Interesting," the Hat said softly. "You guess correctly. You show traits of a Hufflepuff. Hard-working, loyal…it is all there. Yet you would rather not?"

'No,' thought Peter. 'I know I'm not very smart. I've been such a disappointment, forever. Since I was born. But, please, could I just give my parents a _pleasant_ surprise for once?' Peter was desperate. He had always been plain, and he knew it. His parents, wanting a clever wizard, had always been let down by him, as much as they hid it carefully. For once, Peter badly wanted to prove everyone wrong, and show that he could do something right.

"Very well, then," the Hat sighed. "It is your choice, and choices determine our fate. Peter Pettigrew, I place you in GRYFFINDOR!"

"_Potter, James_!"

          He walked quickly over to the stool, and put the Hat on. He waited for something to happen, but nothing did. After waiting a few impatient moment, James wondered whether the Hat was mute.

"No, I am not," the Hat said, sounding miffed.

'Sorry,' James thought back dubiously. Is this what happened? You had a little chat, and the Hat placed you?

"Not always, young Potter," the Sorting Hat replied to his query. "I am just sorting you out, you see. You're a nice little puzzle. You're exceedingly loyal, like a Hufflepuff. Rather clever, like a Ravenclaw. Highly ambitious, as befits a Slytherin."

James groaned. 'Not Slytherin, please?' he asked. 'I really don't like them.' He thought of Severus Snape, the oily boy that had pissed off Sirius on the train. He grated on James's nerves as well, though James had been the one who restrained Sirius from pulling out his wand.

"And very, _very_ brave, like a Gryffindor," the Hat continued, ignoring James's protest. "So what will it be? Any input, James?"

'NOT Slytherin,' James thought determinedly.

"Slytherin could help you climb up, Potter," the Hat advised. "But if you don't want that, so let it be. What about the other three Houses?"

'Hufflepuffs are all idiots,' James said, grinning.

"Very blunt, you are," was the Sorting Hat's reply, but James detected a bit of amusement. 

'I wouldn't mind Ravenclaw, but Sirius is in Gryffindor, so I'd like to be there, please,' James decided.

"You two little marauders." James thought he might be hallucinating a bit- he thought the Hat _chuckled_. "Very well, then. Have fun with your pranks in GRYFFINDOR!"

          James went to sit with Sirius who was talking to another boy, one with long shaggy hair and a pale face. A smaller, scrawny boy was listening to the two of them intently. _Huh_, James thought. _The marauders. That's what we are? I rather like the name. I think I'll mention it to Sirius, see if we could use it._

          After the feast, the four friends- two old, two new- followed the Prefects to their new home.

"You know that Snape git?" asked Sirius. "Well, we can use James' Cloak and chuck some mud at him."

"Good idea, Sirius," James said, a bit surprised that Sirius had come up with something more complicated than bugs in pumpkin juice. "When'd you come up with that?"

Sirius grinned. "During the Sorting Ceremony."

"Well," James said carefully, looking at Remus, Peter, and Sirius, "We're really marauders now, aren't we? At Hogwarts and all." 

"The marauders," Remus said thoughtfully. "I like that."

"Me too!" Peter piped up. "It's like a codename."

"Well, my boys," Sirius said jovially, puffing up his chest comically, "We are officially the Marauders!"

          This story is totally random. The idea just popped into my head one day, so I set out to write it. So…yes, that's all there really is. I thought there might be something behind that Hogsmeade incident where Harry lobs some mud at Malfoy- hey, if it happened to Snape, he might get even madder that it was happening to one of his favorite students :D Just a little passed-down-over-the-generations thing. I don't really like the ending, but I didn't know how else to end it, so that's what we ended up with. Well, if you liked it(or even hated it), please drop a review!!

**_-Alqualyne_**


End file.
